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The construction and use of forest roads can have impacts on geomorphic processes and erosion patterns in forested basins. Analyzing these impacts will help forest managers to effectively manage road and road drainage system and hence minimize the negative impacts of forest roads. To manage forest roads effectively the USDA Forest Service (USFS) has developed a road...

Sediment is the greatest pollutant of forest streams. In the absence of wildfire, forest road networks are usually the main source of sediment in forest watersheds. An understanding of forest road erosion processes is important to aid in predicting sediment delivery from roads to streams. The flowpath followed by runoff is the key to understanding road erosion...

Roads affect flora and fauna across the world. Large mammals are particularly vulnerable to road effects because their large home ranges lead to a higher probability of contact with road networks. Disturbance associated with roads can alter the probability of habitat use by making suitable habitat near roads inaccessible or underused. Many studies and monitoring...

Prevention and estimation of soil erosion from forest roads requires an understanding of how road design and maintenance affect sediment production. Seventy-four plots were installed on forest roads in the Oregon Coast Range to examine the relationship between sediment production and road attributes such as distance between culverts, road slope, soil texture,...

Key Findings: *Recreational uses of roads were expressed most often: Recreational uses and benefits of roads on the national forests were discussed most often in the news media overall. This discussion included both expressions of opinion about the value of roads for recreational purposes and, more commonly, descriptions of roads being useful for recreational access....

The Regional Guide for,the South (United States Department of Agriculture 1984b) recognizes that roads and skid trails are the major sources of sediment from forestry-related activities. The overall environmental impact statement for Region 8 (United States Department of Agriculture 1984a) estimates an existing national forest road network of 56,300 km (3 1,000 miles)...

In recent years there has been increased awareness and societal pressure concerning environmental impacts and aesthetics of forest operations such as road management. Forest roads continue to be attributed to account for the majority of erosion from forestlands. Previous research over the past 70 years has presented many questions concerning the impact of roads on...

This paper reports soil losses and observed sediment deposition for 16 randomly selected forest road sections in the National Forests of Alabama. Visible sediment deposition zones were tracked along the stormwater flow path to the most remote location as a means of quantifying soil loss from road sections. Volumes of sediment in deposition zones were determined by...

Roads are important ecological features of forest landscapes, but their cause-and effect relationships with other ecosystem components are only recently becoming included in integrated landscape analyses. Simulation models can help us to understand how forested landscapes respond over time to disturbance and socioeconomic factors, and potentially to address the...

Recent studies indicate that forest roads may affect the distribution of forest-dwelling birds. However, previous studies have not demonstrated any significant effects of forest roads on avian productivity. We studied the effect of maintained and unmaintained forest roads on (1) forest bird nest survival, (2) reproductive parameters of ovenbirds (Seiurus...

Roads are pervasive in modern landscapes and adversely affect many aquatic ecosystems. Conventional environmental assessments of roads focus on construction impacts but ignore subsequent impacts. A comprehensive framework for considering all impacts of roads would enable scientists and managers to develop assessment tools that more accurately inform stakeholders and...

Wildland road removal is a common practice across the U.S. and in some parts of Canada. The main types of road removal include ripping, stream crossing restoration, and full recontour. Road removal creates a short-term disturbance that may temporarily increase sediment loss. However, research and long-term monitoring have shown that road removal both reduces erosion...

Forest roads are obliterated to lower the risks of surface erosion and mass failures. One purpose of the road obliteration is to return the compacted forest roads to productive pre-road conditions, i.e., a forest floor with high infiltration capacity, low interrill erodibility, and high vegetation ground cover. It is important to know how these characteristics recover...

We conducted a series of 275 paired (on- and off-road) point counts within 4 distinct vegetation cover types in northwestern Montana. Roadside counts generated a bird list that was essentially the same as the list generated from off-road counts within the same vegetation cover type. Species that were restricted to either on- or off-road counts were rare, suggesting...

Recent controversies associated with ditched forest roads and stream crossings in the Pacific Northwest have focused national attention on sediment production and best management practices (BMPs) at stream crossings. Few studies have quantified soil erosion rates at stream crossings as influenced by road characteristics and compared them to modeled rates. Soil erosion...

A poorly placed or unsuitably designed road can result in landslides, flooding, gullies, stream damage, and wildlife habitat destruction. Particularly in natural areas, benefits of roads, such as accessibility and convenience, must be weighed against potential water quality degradation, scenic and wildlife habitat destruction, and hazardous driving conditions...

Abstract - Over the past decade, the U.S. Forest Service has monitored the subsurface hillslope flow of the E-road swale. The swale is located in the Caspar Creek watershed near Fort Bragg, California. In hydrologic year 1990 a logging road was built across the middle section of the hillslope followed by a total clearcut of the area during the following year....

Logging roads are an important source of forestry-related erosion. The amount of erosion on a forest road is determined by the interaction between how the road is constructed and maintained and the environment in which it is built. The roads in this study were constructed with large bulldozers, and most excavated material was sidecast. The roads studied were...

Roads and road building on the US national forests have become the focus of intense public debate in recent years. Timber companies and others argued that forest roads are an essential transportation system for the production of commodities that society needs. Environmentalists and others reply that national forest roads constitute ecologically destructive "...

Roads and road building on the US national forests have become the focus of intense public debate in recent years. Timber companies and others argue that forest roads are an essential transportation system for the production of commodities that society needs. Environmentalists and others reply that national forest roads constitute ecologically destructive "...